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Demographics
Demographics
Poland, with 38,116,000 inhabitants, has the eighth-largest population in Europe and the sixth-largest in the European Union.
It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometer (328 per square mile).
Poland historically contained many languages, cultures and religions on its soil.
The country had a particularly large Jewish population prior to the Second World War, when the Nazi Holocaust caused Poland's Jewish population, estimated at 3 million before the war, to drop to just 300,000.
The outcome of the war, particularly the westward shift of Poland's borders to the area between the Curzon line and the Oder-Neisse line, coupled with post-war expulsion of minorities, significantly reduced the country's ethnic diversity.
According to the 2002 census, 36,983,700 people, or 96.74% of the population, consider themselves Polish, while 471,500 (1.23%) declared another nationality, and 774,900 (2.03%) did not declare any nationality.
The largest minority nationalities and ethnic groups in Poland are Silesians, Kashubians, Germans (152,897 according to the census, most in Opole Voivodeship), Belarusians (c.
49,000), Ukrainians (c.
30,000), Lithuanians, Russians, Roma, Jews, Lemkos, Slovaks, Czechs, and Tatars.
Among foreign citizens, the Vietnamese are the largest ethnic group, followed by Greeks and Armenians.
The Polish language, a member of the West Slavic branch of the Slavic languages, functions as the official language of Poland.
Until recent decades Russian was commonly learned as a second language, but now has been replaced by English and German as the most common second languages studied and spoken.
In recent years, Poland's population has decreased because of an increase in emigration and a sharp drop in the birth rate.
Since Poland's accession to the European Union, a significant number of Poles have emigrated to Western European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Ireland in search of work.
Some organizations have stated that Polish emigration is primarily due to Poland's high unemployment rate (10.5% in 2007), with Poles searching for better work opportunities abroad.
In April 2007, the Polish population of the United Kingdom had risen to approximately 300,000 and estimates place the Polish population in Ireland at 65,000.
Polish minorities are still present in the neighboring countries of Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, as well as in other countries (see Poles for population numbers).
Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.
The largest number of Poles outside of Poland can be found in the United States.
Urban Areas
The largest metropolitan areas in Poland are the Upper Silesian Coal Basin centred on Katowice (3.5 million inhabitants); the capital, Warsaw (3 million); Kraków and Łódź (each 1.3 million); the Tricity of Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia in the Vistula delta (1.1 million); Poznań (900,000); Wrocław (900,000); and Szczecin (700,000).
For an overview of Polish cities, see List of cities in Poland.
Religion
Because of the Holocaust and the post-World War II flight and expulsion of German and Ukrainian populations, Poland has become almost uniformly Roman Catholic.
Most Poles—approximately 89%—are members of the Roman Catholic Church.
Though rates of religious observance are currently lower than they have been in the past, Poland remains one of the most devoutly religious countries in Europe.
Religious minorities include Polish Orthodox (about 506,800), various Protestants (about 150,000), Jehovah’s Witnesses (126,827), Eastern Catholics, Mariavites, Polish Catholics, Jews, and Muslims (including the Tatars of Białystok).
Members of Protestant churches include about 77,500 in the largest Evangelical-Augsburg Church, and a similar number in smaller Pentecostal and Evangelical churches.
Freedom of religion is now guaranteed by the 1989 statute of the Polish constitution, enabling the emergence of additional denominations.
However, due to pressure from the Polish Episcopate, the exposition of doctrine has entered the public education system as well.
According to a 2007 survey, 72% of respondents were not opposed to religious instruction in public schools; alternative courses in ethics are available only in one percent of the entire public educational system.
Source: CIA Factbook, Wikipedia
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